Clive: We’re Sorry (and a description of Clive for those who do not know of him)

We wanted to do an April Fools and we made a genuine mistake deciding to do the article on Clive getting an honourary degree.

The article was written as the product of some wishful thinking and was meant to be fairly light hearted. It was never the product of any malice  of any kind. We adore Clive far too much for that! 

But when we saw, around 4.30pm today, that Clive took the article seriously we felt AWFUL, and we still do. 

Immediately we apologised to Clive and exposed the story to be a hoax.

Clive is a man who is exceedingly nice to students and we would absolutely love it if Clive were to be awarded some sort of honour from the university because he deserves one.

It was an ill thought out idea and that article should never have been written. We could not be more apologetic for the April Fools' article. It won't happen again.

Clive: We're really sorry, and we truly hope you forgive us.

~The UEA Drop.

Clive made a status earlier saying: "What can i say,student prank,im an april fool,thanx anyway"

But we want to point out we never intended for him to be the victim of our hoax. There was not meant to be any victim at all. It was just meant to be a April Fools article that was appropriately misleading. 

For those who do not know who Clive is: 

Clive was known as UEA's legendary night shift bus driver for over a decade before First forced him to quit his job after banning him from serving students like you and me. 

He was so popular he had two fan pages set up in his honour which amassed 5000 likes between them (before they were achieved), where he is rightly described as "the best busdriver in the world" and "a legend". 
 

The comments on both of those groups show what an incredibly generous gentleman he was. He is notorious for being very friendly to all his passengers and for going that extra mile to make their journey special. 

It was not unusual for Clive to waiver the bus fare, and the atmosphere on the bus when he was driving was like a "carnival" with tons of happy student passengers singing chants in his name. 

He was also known for going off route to drop people off as close to their homes as possible, and it is this which got him barred from driving the 25/35 in the first place after hitting a tree branch back in October. 
 

Despite his hero-like status he has always been humble enough to say he was just "doing his job."

This is why he is viewed so fondly by all of those who know him. 
 

Feel free to read some of the messages to him on his archived fan pages here: 

He's C.L.I.V.E on the 25http://www.facebook.com/groups/22915811476/

Hail to the Bus Driver! Clive on the 25/35!http://www.facebook.com/groups/77735585504/